The Writers Block Thread

I think every writer has felt this way. And then when we have some success, it can be hard not to feel like some sort of fraud. Like you managed to trick everyone. What else could it be? Then again not everyone who has writer dreams does make it. And that has a lot to do with how bad you really want it. I believe a good writer needs to be an avid reader. I even think it's more important for a writer to read daily than write daily. There's a lot of work that goes into being a writer. And there's a lot of failure that comes with our best efforts. I have received hundreds of rejections and still get them all the time. So, I work on getting better. I read a lot. I've taken a million classes and I hope to take more. And I am somewhat of a professional writer. I have some impressive credits, but that just means I briefly did have what it takes, no? I totally get your self doubt. It probably won't ever go away completely, but that doesn't mean it has to stop you from making this happen. You can do it, my friend.

 

I do have to clarify this: I'm not looking to write a bestselling book that makes me a LOT of money. I have a job already, which was always my back-up. Years ago writing that type of book may have been my goal, but as a person grows they find out what makes them happy. What makes me happy is writing a book just for myself and not caring if it's published or not. Writing in my notebook juat for myself and feeling excited is an amazing feeling.
What I mean by "not having it" is what if it doesn't come together? What if the jumble of words don't flow together and create that magic? Do any other writers ever compare their work to others and feel less than? And wanting to know what helped other writers through this and if my feelings are normal. Simply, what would the writing process look like from first draft to a finished product.

 

If you have the desire to do something then you have the gift for it. It may be an underdeveloped gift, but it's there.

Every good writer struggles with confidence in themselves and their ability to tell a captivating story.

My gentle advice would be to begin practicing your gift. You don't have to have perfect faith in it to start; everyone falls when learning to walk. It's simply a matter of desire overcoming weakness until you become strong enough to stand on your own. I'm rooting for you.

 

Keep asking questions, and all you'll end up doing is seeking answers instead of writing.

Everyone has these issues. You're not the first, my dude. It's difficult to overcome self-criticism and self-doubt, so there's no single right answer for that - it's different for everybody. But what I can tell you is just chill, practice writing, and eventually, you'll get there. There's a reason many say patience is a virtue.

 

There is no magic. Writing is a skill that you develop through hard work and perseverance. It might take you years, it might never happen, but you'll never know unless you try.

 

I don't want to say writers block, because that's not what I'm feeling. Though I do have that worry in the back of my mind.
I'm very new to the writing world as it is. Are there any tools, tips, techniques any skilled writer here uses time and again to get past any apprehension when they reach a certain point in there story?
For me, with my vampiress and ballerina story *i need a better book title.* I couldn't continue writing that night because I was blushing so much for the ballerina. I have several other ideas for this story that happen later on so I opened a new section in scrivener and started writing that.
Just a few times where I felt apprehension for the characters/situation and wasn't sure for a second or two. I don't think I'll have trouble writing for the delicate ballerina. Maybe I'm thinking too much about it. Not writers block here, maybe adrenaline overdose.

 

If I'm having a tough time writing something, it's way too easy for me to procrastinate by just looking at social media for a while or something -- and that never helps, so instead I'll make myself get up from the computer to reset my brain a little bit. Go get something to drink, or bother my cat, or just walk to another room and look out the window (stepping outside for a minute is nice, weather permitting). Take a breath. Tell yourself you have to write the thing once you get back, regardless of your nerves. Then do it (that's the key part).

Other times, it's simpler to just rush through it. Make yourself do it with the knowledge that you might be doing it clumsily because your brain isn't in the right place, but get through the part you're apprehensive about. Once it's on 'paper' in some form, it's easier to deal with -- and it'll be easier to get through something like it the next time, too.

 

Thanks izzybot, that helps a lot. That's the word I was looking for, nerves... definitely nervousness.

I just want it to be perfect, is that too much to ask from myself? I like to write descriptively and poetically. Even though I'm not much of a poetry reader.

When I'm doing my art, I've come across this nervousness before. When I make a statue, I don't start working until I have a crystal clear picture in my mind of what the piece will look like.

Later on in the creation, I have come upon a section where the piece is not as crystal clear as I thought. That's where the nervousness kicks in. I've always come through fine with my statues.

Writing is uncharted waters for me, the nerves, adrenaline. I have recently added meditation and breathing techniques into my life. As many do, I disregarded meditation thinking that won't work for me, but it totally does. I'll keep adding techniques as I go along.

 

Yes, it is!

I feel ya, though. The perfectionism can be tough to keep at bay long enough to actually get anything done. I just try to tell myself, "Done is better than perfect," and if I keep saying it, maybe eventually it'll sink in.

I have this lovely leather-bound notebook that I bought probably about eight or nine years ago, and I've written maybe half a dozen pages in it in all this time because I always feel like it's too perfect for me to mess up with my dumb words. When I expressed that to this friend who was also a writer, she told me that there was no way I could make something that was worse than there being nothing. 'Nothing' is always going to have a value of zero. Anything you write is better than not having written at all. I try to remind myself of that one, too.

 

You are a font of wisdom, I'm taking all this knowledge in. *Tips my hat to izzybot*

 

Hello, people!

I wonder if you too struggle with the feeling that everything is useless and that you should perhaps “devote” your energy to something else.

Throughout the years I´ve been working on my stories I struggled mostly with frustration connected with how slow the whole process is, or to be more precise how slow I am. Statistically, this frustration was manifested mostly on Saturdays. Just for illustration – one of my “youngest” stories will soon be 4 years old, other stories are even “older” – 6 and more years. I wanted to have my “youngest” story finished before my 25th birthday, at least the first draft. I will celebrate my 25th birthday in July this year and this is what I have - 152 pages with ideas, approximately 1 page written in the story, unfinished biographies of two characters (although both biographies have about 5 pages each) out of about 20 and a lot of “holes” in the story I am not able to “fill in”. From other stories I have even less pages with ideas, not to mention the biographies of the characters.

But till now I was able to handle this frustration and kept working because it made me happy, it enriched my life and enlarged my outlook. I´ve learnt a lot of things. I had the feeling that I have something to say.

Two days ago, it seems, I´ve reached “my limit”, and I am almost sure that I´ll quit the whole thing and start to do something else. What is the point of writing stories, when my first story will be finished when I will lie in my deathbed?
And another problem is that I want to write good stories, but it takes a lot of time. And I cannot write "shit" (sorry for the word), I will rather not write at all.

The irony is that yesterday I got an idea how to complicate, “develop” and even perhaps finish one of my short stories, really a personal one.

I would like to know if you experience the same or at least similar “feelings” and how do you fight it if you do.

I am grateful for every response.

 

I know I mention Brandon Sanderson a lot, but I want to give him credit and I’ve probably listened to him talk for a hundred hours.

He teaches a college course on writing where the students are required to grind out 50k words in 3 months or whatever.

The first thing he says is that you are only allowed to write something you already started if you are under contract with a traditional publisher, and that the epic fantasy you have been working on for ten years is a millstone hanging around your neck, trying to drown you.

You won’t know how to write a book until you finish one, correct it, and find out what you did wrong.

So, in my opinion, if you want to write books, you should commit to having a fresh one by this time next year. That probably means 3 months for the first draft, and 5-6 months for revisions, a month for readers, and two more months for revisions.

 

When did 25 become old? Man, I'm way past that. Stop putting these deadlines on yourself. Publishers don't care if you're 25 or 45 and neither do readers. You're the only one hung up on this age thing, and it isn't doing you any favors. And probably anyone who has at least ten years on you is rolling there eyes at your 25th birthday self-imposed deadline. Most 25 year olds can't write books, and out of those who can the majority will suck. Regardless of age, we all sucked at one point. I know I still doubt myself on a regular basis. But there is know way I could what I can now at 25. There's no rush. And the publishing world would lose a race to just about any snail. If you're really in a hurry, ask yourself why because I don't see any reason for you to feel like a failure. It's just a book and you're just 25. I don't mean that with any disrespect, but if I could go back to 25, the last thing I would be worrying about is finishing a book. I think you have a lot more time than you think you do.

I did an MFA a few years back. I was one of the older students, but became friends with some of the younger ones, too. The youngest girl in our program came right from undergrad and was very good. We got to talking and I told her if I was her, an MFA would be the last thing I would be doing. She could write. That wasn't going to change. There's always going to be time to write when we want it and we're ready for it. She left our program at the end of the year, moved someplace she had always wanted to live, found a job she liked, found a lover she liked. I know reading and writing are still a part of her life, but I'm glad she really thought about the things she wanted to have and do at a young age. She obviously had thought it was writing when she applied for MFA programs. There are just more things important than writing, and at some point we all realize that.

In no way am I trying to discourage you. If this is what you want and want to be doing, go for it. Put the work in. Suck and then don't suck and then suck again. Wake up every morning and write for an hour. Read for an hour every night before you go to bed (because reading is probably the most important thing a writer should be doing). And if you really try your absolute hardest, you have to be somewhat prepared to fail because that's the most likely outcome. But precipitance does pay off. The more we read and write the better we get. This is never going to be easy. Writing is something that can take everything we've got and have little or no return.

Still, it can be done. I was making a living off of writing essays and articles at your age. I did write a novel when I was that young, but there weren't any takers. I sort of used writing as a way to travel the world. Rather than writing a novel at your computer in your bedroom, why not buy a oneway ticket somewhere and become a travel writer or something like that. When I wanted to do this and really didn't want to fail, I bought a oneway ticket, and told myself I would get a ticket home once I made the money to afford it. We don't always need a safety net. Some of the best things happen to us when we take big risks. And even if you finish your novel by your birthday, there is no guarantee it will lead to anything. If you're going to be a writer of any kind, you have to be prepared for a ridiculous amount of rejection. Don't let that be the thing that stops you. It's just that everyone wants to be a writer at some point, I think, making the competition always crazy.

And I will just say one more thing: If you're really going to be a writer, what you will write in the future is going to be far more important than anything you produce now regardless of any success or lack of. Good luck with everything.

 

If you think you are old at 25, wait till you get to my age, a ripe old 70. My Eagle and the Dragon was 20 years in the making, including 13 years of not doing anything with it. The sequel is going faster because I don't want to be 90 when it is published! Sounds like your desire for perfection is impeding your progress. The first draft will include a lot of shit that you will find on editing. But you can't edit the shit out until you finish it, so get cracking.

Also bear in mind, to be an effective writer, you write about life, and you are experiencing that now. I know 25-year-olds don't like to hear this, but you have just begun.

 

Writing is a process. Like any good thing out there it takes time. But I have to admit I found my writing vastly improved when I started completing some short stories. Not just a little improvement but a huge improvement. Short stories really teach you how to use brevity, how to edit, polish, find an ending, complete something and after you have a little mini bundle of them -- you'll recognize Eureka! you have style.
Before I started short stories my lag on projects was huge -- I was so focused on getting everything right, I didn't dare risk doing anything wrong.

 

When you say “story” do you mean a novel, or a short story?

I remember reading, from some successful author, that every novel reaches the “meh” stage that tempts you to move on to something new and shiny. But then the new and shiny will be “meh”, and so on and so on. So pick one and get it to done.

Also, if you refuse to write badly, how will you ever write well? Can you imagine a hopeful new pianist who, once in a while, sits down to see if they have been granted professional ability but, discovering that they haven’t, refuses to touch the keyboard until next month when they test again?

Skill requires practice. Practice is what takes you from being unskilled to skilled. If you refuse to practice because you’re unskilled, you will never become skilled.

 

The first landing you make in an airplane will probably be horrible and scare you silly. The first time you try to catch a ball, you probably will not. The first time you shoot a gun, you won't come anywhere near the target. Mistakes are the path to success

 

I think when you indicate you do not want to write 'shit' you have to realize that your early drafts will be nothing like the final product. Consider that you need to press through and finish that first story, that first draft of that first story, realizing you are going to have to go back and make corrections, fix plot holes and dialogue and pacing and description and more.

Finishing that first 1st draft will be a major boost. Will the story go anywhere? Maybe. But even if it doesn't, it will serve both as a milestone and a manuscript that provided many lessons and insights as you move forward.

 

Is that the moral equivalent of your first book’s first draft hitting 150k and turning into a pretty good 85k story? lol

 

Well, I did not mean that I am old in my age. I was trying to say that if it continues this way and "speed", my first story will be finished when I WILL be old, like in my seventies or even older, or maybe death will be upon me.
By stories I mean stories with length at least 100 pages, maybe more, I only have one or two short stories which may or may not be finished one day.
By "shit" I mean not very good stories - terrible characters, terrible plot if there is any at all, missing logic, etc.. One would say that stories with terrible characters and plot will not be published, but I know some authors who published such stories and they have even become "worldwide phenomena".
Well, I never wanted my stories to be the greatest stories of all, but I wanted them to be good, maybe a bit intellectual, since I am interested in themes like revenge, the point of being moral in the immoral world, forgiveness, etc. and I did not want my stories to be built on coincidence or they will probably never contain a lot of purposeless violence, blood, nothing like that.
But I think that maybe that is the reason why it takes so long.

 

Maybe you should try changing your priorities? Having notes and character bios is important, but not if you're writing four and five pages per character on a bio and have a stack of notes that make no sense.

Have you tried, and no disrespect intended here, just writing the story? You don't have to get it right the first time (none of us ever do) that's why we edit and re-write, but surely that's the most important thing. All the other stuff, you can pick up and make notes on as you write because part of writing, is watching the story evolve, and not always into what you first intended it to evolve into. Stories and characters do grow and change as we write, so being too rigid with your notes and bios may be the thing that's holding you back ...?

On the time thing, my first fiction took me 7 month to write - but it had been in my mind from first scribblings 25-ish years. My second fiction took me 2 years, and third ... I'm still doing that now. So don't beat yourself up about timing.

As for negative feelings, that's normal. Most - if not all - authors feel negatively about their work at some point or another. It's the nature of the beast, writing is bloody hard work, especially if you are then going to self publish too as you have to be the creator, the advertiser, the marketing manager, the accountant and the teagirl/teaboy all rolled into one, with the added pressure of also being a mom/dad/spouse/employee/homeowner/student/whatever.

So rather than give up, just take a step back, have a breather, change a few thing around and try again. You only ever fail at something the day you stop doing it.

 

Hi, @Leanne ! Well, in addition to what everybody else is telling you, about starting out making lots of mistakes and getting better the more you work at it, I'd like to add something else.

I feel very strongly that if something isn't working for you, as regards your writing, you need to try a different approach. It doesn't make much sense to keep doing the same thing over and over if it doesn't work.

I'm wondering what would happen if you focused on the bare bones of the story itself ...character and plot/what happened to whom ...and forgot about 'saying something.' In other words, forget about using artistic prose to tell a worthy story with a heavy theme and just tell a story. Anything can happen in this story. It can be very lightweight and insignificant, if that's how it turns out. Just tell an entertaining and/or an exciting story, containing characters who interest you and situations you find intriguing. Play the what if game. What if this happened to my main character? What would she do 'if?' Throw your characters into a setting or time period that requires you to do a bit of research. Play against type. If you normally write from the POV of a woman, write from the POV of a man. In other words, shake the thing up and see what kind of a story you can create. Forget about its cosmic significance.

THEN ...and this is the good part ...once you have the story completed to first draft stage, read it over. Are there any big themes that have emerged? I imagine there will be, because it's you who is writing it, and your outlook will be all over the material. Then is when you can start refining it, so the significant theme emerges. Sparkle up the language and make it more like what you wanted it to be. Maybe the romantic relationship has a darker edge than you expected. Exploit that. Maybe one of the two lovers is not exactly what they seem, or not quite as committed as they appear. Exploit that. Perhaps the people who oppose your main characters are NOT just doing it for jealous spite, but are motivated by much darker and more significant forces.

In other words, write your story and then find your theme and your style. When you do the original writing, just concentrate on constructing a good story. Even an entertaining one. Even a funny one. Make it grab your reader and make them keep turning the pages till they reach the end. Afterwards, in your editing stage, you can reshape it so your readers won't ever forget the story either. Give them something to think about afterwards and you will have them hooked and wanting to read more of what you will write.